Changing Kinesiology and Physical Education by Infusing Information About Individuals With Disabilities

Just as faculty are expected to refer to performance and behavior changes that occur by age, gender, and other factors, an infusion of information about individuals with disabilities requires us to focus on the range of human variability and its relation to physical activity across the life span. This call to infuse information about individuals with disabilities should affect most kinesiology/ physical education undergraduate and graduate curricula in institutions of higher education. Advocacy for this idea has been developing for many years (Hall & Stiehl, 1978; Sherrill, 1988; Stein, 1969). Such infusion could add to and enhance our ability to contribute to the broad goals of society. But for us to assume this role, we must change our curricula to meet our published mission of serving society. This change will help disciplinary and professional preparation programs produce a broader range of scholarly activity and provide leadership that other disciplines may envy     

Obituary John Wilson, 1928–2003

ABSTRACT

Much research on school effectiveness has been characterised by largely overstated claims and poor modelling. School effectiveness research (SER) has tended to define ‘effectiveness’ in terms of a restricted and often inappropriate range of outcomes, to overlook the issue of curriculum alignment, to be limited by the absence of longitudinal data, and it has often been characterised by unsupported assumptions about the homogeneity of school ‘effects’. SER needs to provide justification for the interpretation of ‘effectiveness’ defined as the unexplained part of performance in a statistical model, and a much clearer conception of why certain relationships exist is required. SER has yet to demonstrate the extent to which differences among schools in their ‘effectiveness’ are really caused by identifiable factors within the school and, more importantly, factors within the school's control; evaluations of school improvement interventions are generally unconvincing in this respect. Repeated findings of ‘correlates’ associated with ‘effectiveness’ (particularly when the strengths of the associations are not reported) are no substitute for a well grounded understanding of the specific mechanisms by which schools have their effects. A number of recommendations for future research are made.     

Student drinking in the Third Reich: Academic tradition and the Nazi revolution†

Heavy consumption of alcohol pervaded the student world in Germany to an even greater extent than elsewhere. Many of the fraternities, to which a substantial proportion of the student body belonged, required their members to undergo regular, formal and compulsory drinking bouts. The temperance movement had little effect on students until a general mood of austerity dawned after the First World War. The National Socialists identified themselves with the new sobriety in many policies aside from drink. After Hitler's seizure of power in 1933, one can identify a certain ambivalence in alcohol policies. On the one hand, the puritanical conscience of the Nazis wanted to purge Germany of all decadence, but there was an equally strong impulse for a prolonged victory celebration in traditionally alcoholic terms. This unresolved dilemma can be neatly illustrated through an examination of the universities at the time.

Nazi student leaders indulged in rowdy celebrations after 1933, while denouncing the fraternity world for its alcoholic excesses. This double standard persisted throughout the Third Reich. The Nazis persecuted fraternity members for harmless, drunken horseplay which looked like expressions of political discontent, while plying freshmen with beer and wine themselves, in order to persuade them to join the rather dull, Nazi student organizations. Where alcoholic misdemeanours did occur within the Nazi students’ own ranks, they were treated in various ways, according to political convenience. There was little chance of a strong stand against excessive student drinking with an outright alcoholic as Education Minister during this whole period. In more general terms, the production of beer and wine formed an important part of the German economy, which the government was trying to stimulate, not depress. Drinking remained, then, as a central part of student life despite a promised revolution in all aspects of the academic world. The old traditions persisted, and were sometimes even taken up by the Nazis themselves in their concern for historic roots and legitimacy.

     

Disclosure of information by children in social networking—Not just a case of “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine”

This paper reports the results of a study of MySpace use, by Sydney high school children. It examines the reasons why children disclose information on the website and their understanding of some of the privacy issues involved. The study provides a useful beginning for further work in this area. Regression is used to validate a proposed model of the factors influencing information disclosure and cluster analysis provides an indication of characteristics shared by children who disclose sensitive information, such as name, address and telephone number. It also suggests that children who are taught to value privacy are less likely to disclose sensitive information on-line.     

Self-actualization: The Heart and Soul of a Potential-based Life Skills Program for a Child with Multiple Disabilities

Although every child with disabilities may come to self-actualization by different means and measurements it is, nevertheless, an important goal. The child with disabilities may be guided toward her goal of self-actualization by being encouraged to find her individual strengths and capacities, and by being assisted to successfully interact with her environment. This article explores the use of the scientific method to support the development of a potential-based program that has nurtured self-actualization and the joy of learning for a child with multiple disabilities and chronic illness.     

Exploration of the contribution of teachers’ knowledge about reading to their students’ improvement in reading

Recent studies of elementary teachers’ knowledge about reading have been built on the premise that teachers need thorough knowledge about language and reading processes, but these studies have provided only limited evidence that teachers’ performance on tests of such knowledge contributes to their students’ reading achievement. The present study was designed to examine the contribution of first- through third-grade teachers’ knowledge about early reading to their students’ improvement on tests of word analysis and reading comprehension, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics of students, their prior reading achievement, and teachers’ educational attainment, professional experiences, and socio-demographic characteristics. Preliminary analyses indicated that the test of teachers’ knowledge had adequate psychometric characteristics. However, performance on this measure of teachers’ knowledge did not significantly explain students’ improvement on the two reading subtests. The complexity of the factors that influence teachers’ knowledge acquisition and the context in which the study was carried out offer possible explanations for these results. In addition, teachers’ content knowledge about reading might not be closely associated with the practices they use in reading instruction, and therefore might not be significantly related to their students’ improvement in reading over a year.